VLAD (The V Games #1)(59)
One month later…
“Everything okay?” I ask as I walk over to her.
She stares out the window of the honeymoon suite of our hotel and nods. “It’s bittersweet, you know?”
I come up behind her and hug her. She still wears a wedding dress, and I my tuxedo. The affair was an intimate one, with only our families present. Diana didn’t come. It was passed on via Veniamin Vetrov to Irina that she had other commitments to attend to. But what sweet Irina doesn’t know is I forbade it. Her older sister isn’t welcome in my home ever again. Leonid walked Irina down the aisle, and despite their issues, gave his blessing for me to wed her. A Vasiliev marrying a Volkov was always the plan. There may have been some strife between the two families, but in the end, tradition and power won out.
“I’m sorry. She would have made it if she could,” I offer, squeezing her to me.
She turns in my arms and lifts a brow. “I’m not stupid, Vlad. She wasn’t allowed to come. Let’s not start this marriage off with lies.”
She misses nothing.
I should know better.
Shame, an unusual and foreign feeling, trickles through me. Am I such an asshole I couldn’t allow her this one thing?
I am, unfortunately.
I’ll make it up to her, but it was something I simply wouldn’t renege on.
“Hey,” she murmurs, her palms covering my cheeks. “I understand why she wasn’t allowed to come. But it doesn’t change the fact that it hurt not having my big sister see me on my big day.” Tears glisten in her crystal blue orbs. “I’m happy, though. So very happy with you. I want to do this right. Not like our parents. We’re better than them. Smarter and stronger. You and I, Vasiliev. It’s you and I against our world.”
I relax and lean forward to kiss her forehead. “I’m lucky to have you.”
“Damn right,” she sasses.
Laughing, I pull away and regard my beautiful wife. The word feels strange on my tongue. Most men in our world seem bothered by having a wife, preferring mistresses over the ones who carry their children. I can’t imagine ever fucking another woman. Not when I have this one. She’s everything to me. Gorgeous, fierce, smart as a whip, and best of all: loyal.
It’s time.
To hand her the key to me.
I’ve never fully given myself to another person, but my sun—my Shadow—has earned this right simply by being her.
“Come sit,” I tell her as I motion to a sofa in our suite.
She pulls away and sashays in her glittery white dress that is more sparkly than the snow when the sun peeks through and illuminates it. Maybe it’s the person wearing the dress. She certainly has a glow I’m unable to ignore. As she sits, I walk over to my messenger bag holding my laptop and some pictures I keep with me. I grab the bag and sit beside her.
Ever the patient one, she remains quiet with her hands clasped on her lap. The two rings that tie her to me sit heavy on her dainty finger. I love how loud and expensive they are, practically screaming at anyone with eyes that she’s not only taken, but she’s taken by Vlad fucking Vasiliev.
I pull out the pictures first and hand those to her. She flips through them, chuckling at a few, saying “aww” when she comes across baby pictures, and staring a long time at one of my siblings and me when the twins were babies and I a preschooler. It’s actually my favorite picture because even though you can’t see her in the picture, my mother is holding the twins in her lap. Father, long ago, sliced her head right out of the photo—out of all the photos. But she’s still there, and seeing her hands in the picture helps my memories paint the rest of what she looked like.
“These are sweet,” she says when she finishes.
I take them from her and set them on the coffee table. “I loved my siblings. Father was a prick, and they didn’t have a mother. I looked after them and kept them out of trouble. Vika, as you know, was precocious and ran around terrorizing everyone. But Viktor? He was my little buddy. We did everything together. I loved him so much…love him, rather.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” she breathes. “I can’t imagine something happening to my sister.”
I pull out my laptop and flip it open. In an encrypted file, I open a series of video clips. The first one is of last year’s V Games. It shows Niko coming up behind my brother, trying to stab him. Then, Kami, a skilled fighter within The Games stabs Niko, but he remains standing. The clock ticking away ends The Games, and then, moments later, it shows Niko getting crushed by the razor twins—big motherfuckers who wear spikes on their clothes—and dying after the event officially ended. We learned later, after I scoured the video footage, Niko Vetrov was ordered to be killed because of my sister—something the Vetrovs obviously don’t know. Vika, Father, Viktor, myself, and now my wife are the only ones who do.
“That’s so brutal,” Irina murmurs.
Instead of answering, I open video conversation after video conversation of Vika planning with Niko to take out Viktor. She would remind him, over and over again, his love affair with her twin was sick and disgusting. That our fathers would only agree to one outcome—she and Niko married, producing heirs left and right. Even in the videos, I could tell my best friend at the time was torn. He loved Vika, I truly believe that, but he loved Viktor more. Essentially, being that they were twins, it was like he could have the best of both worlds. She somehow convinced him to kill Viktor. Luckily, he failed. And as an insurance policy, she made sure Niko would die to cover up all her tracks so his family would not come after her.